The Song of Truth

No one knows why people make sudden breakthroughs into self-awareness, but when they do, the effect is often short-lived. The moment of liberation may be earthshaking, but it passes quickly, leaving no deep or lasting transformation in its wake. There is no great mystery to this. The forces that uphold our familiar world have returned with renewed tenacity. Inertia, fear, the pull of old habits—they all warn us to remain where we are. Who knows what the unknown might bring.

Could a completely new self even survive in this rough world? As children we all learned not to be too sensitive, too open, too vulnerable. We saw the obvious advantages of being as tough as possible, of getting what you want from other people. In this way there arose a very troubling conflict—the clash between love and power—that found lodgings deep inside each of us.

Compassion is not the easiest feeling for the ego to adjust to. On the other hand, compassion is true, and that is its great attraction.

By “true,” I mean that compassion is found at the core of human nature, underneath the covering layers of selfishness. In our time, psychology has dwelt on selfishness as a fundamental drive in the human character, but in the yogi’s eyes, this is a profound misjudgment. To him, compassion and its root feeling, love, are primary in humankind. Whenever they appear, even in a flash, it is our true self appearing, like the sun breaking through the clouds. To the yogi, love and non-love are not striving for dominance. Love is eternal; non-love is temporary, a twist of the psyche that the small, limited, fearful self falls prey to.

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Fascinating and intriguing. A thoughtful and interesting topic and love is found in many derivatives and styles. Being selfish can be very self defeating when it ignores others, although there are times when being kind to oneself is needed as too many people give all to others and nothing, no mercy to themselves, having no sense of balance.

Theresa W. My love for my mother, sister, best friend, and others is in no way related to sex, unless you want to include the fact that each of them are the product of sex, as am I, but the love I feel for them is in no way sexual. It is familial.

Not all forms of love are romantic or sexual. The Greeks had several names for love, all of which reflected the different forms it took: Eros was for romantic/sexual love, whereas Agape was love for all of humanity, or as our Founding Fathers called, brotherly love.

The Love Mr. Chopra is talking about is not the emotions we feel, which in a romantic situation are indeed at least fed by the hormones that are released during and after sex.

The Love he is talking about is the concept of Universal Love, that Love (in the form of God) is the basis of all existence.

I, actually, am not certain I agree with this idea. I don't actually believe that God can be contained within one idea or concept. However, the idea of Love being the basis for all of creation is a beautiful idea. Imagine how much better we would treat each other, other animals and living creatures, and the very planet herself, if we all could at least appreciate this idea.

It is short lived -- if the insight is not re-inforced enought to make the real change. Sometimes an entire change in lifestyle, including leaving old friends behind as one finds new ones, and moving to another area where people do not know a person and allow people to grow and change is essential. Many times the reason a person does not maintain a new way of life, or new habit is that they need reinforcement from other people and no negativity. People around other people can help a person by allowing them to become better -- and that is a good thing for all people involved -- because then each person becomes a better person.
It takes a village -- some people wrote that.